COVID-19 Megathread 3: Third time's a charm

[ProudModerate2]

Gahdamnnn! My friend thinks this is the end of humankind. He dropped out of college, sold his car and keeps stocking up on food and ammo.

Are you serious?
Did he sell the car, because he needed money, or literally because he thinks the world is coming to an end? That's crazy stuff.
How old is your friend? Does he not have family to shelter with and seek emotional help?

[ProudModerate2]

A group of young adults held a coronavirus party in Kentucky to defy orders to socially distance. Now one of them has coronavirus.

At least one person in Kentucky is infected after taking part at a "coronavirus party" with a group of young adults, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
The partygoers intentionally got together "thinking they were invincible" and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing, Bashear said.
"This is one that makes me mad," the governor said. "We have to be much better than that."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/24/health/kentucky-coronavirus-party-infection/index.html

This is insane.
By doing this, they not only jeopardize themselves, but their own family members and friends (not to mention the rest of their community).

[ProudModerate2]

I’ll just leave this cartoon here for those who think the DOW Jones is more important than people’s lives:

I find this cartoon really rich.  We’re going to end up huddled around fires in caves because ICU capacity was breached?  This is the likely outcome if we shut everything down for 3+ months

Of course, I doubt this cartoon is about Coronavirus

It's not. The cartoon has been circulating here in Atlas for at least 2 or 3 years.

[ProudModerate2]

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1242580468840751104

Again, I don't see how it can possibly be in Trump's political interest for this to happen to his base voters in Florida.

OMG, what a horrible story.
There should be some punishment to those workers who just completely abandoned the place.
Like, who was feeding the elderly that were still alive?
It's maddening.

[ProudModerate2]

40 people in Connecticut exposed to coronavirus at a party, officials say.

About 40 people who attended a farewell party in Connecticut in early March were exposed to Covid-19 after a partygoer was confirmed to have the virus, three local Connecticut officials confirmed to CNN.

The town of Westport now has 79 cases, the most of any Connecticut municipality, according to local officials. In Fairfield County, the surrounding county, there are 384 confirmed cases, more than half of Connecticut's total number of cases.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/03/25/us/connecticut-party-coronavirus-exposure/index.html

[ProudModerate2]

[ProudModerate2]

Louisiana is going to be the new epicenter at this point thanks to Mardi Gras

And I wouldnt doubt if Florida follows suit, due to their ignorant decision to allow all those college students to continue to gather/party.

[ProudModerate2]

A stay-at-home order has now been issued for all of Colorado, to last until April 11: https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2020/03/25/watch-gov-polis-issues-statewide-stay-at-home-order-until-april-11/.

Building upon this earlier, many people still aren't taking this outbreak seriously. I've noted many times before that most of my own household falls into this definition. When I told my father and stepmother about the order not too long ago, they didn't seem much troubled. For them, Colorado has already been under a state of lockdown, with almost "all places" closed, and they don't think the order will make any difference. They also seemed to make a joke out of people defying the order (i.e. "What are you doing out of your house?" "Officer" etc.)

But I've given up trying to persuade anyone else at this point. People at my job also still weren't taking this seriously. When I was there on Saturday and on Monday, I was virtually the only cashier wearing gloves. Most of them still went about like business as usual.

Just continue to take it seriously, and protect yourself.

[ProudModerate2]

https://twitter.com/awinston/status/1242945302291718150

Crazy stuff.
I'm glad they got him before he bombed the hospital.

[ProudModerate2]

Trump mocks Mitt Romney on Twitter for having a negative result for CoronaVirus.

Sen. Mitt Romney has announced he tested negative for the coronavirus but out of an abundance of caution will remain in self-quarantine. The president on Wednesday sent out a tweet seemingly mocking Sen. Romney.

Click this link to watch video: https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/trump-mocks-mitt-romney-on-twitter-81178181845

We have someone who has good news regarding their CoronaVirus test result, and trump decides to be a total   d i c k  about it.
What a horrible human being, and a disgrace to The Office.

[ProudModerate2]

There are still so many areas of the country where a nationwide lockdown doesn’t make any sense.  My own region has only had one confirmed case.  It was a kid at a nearby college coming back from spring break.   There is still no evidence of community spread here.  This sort of situation can still be effectively combated through testing and tracing like Korea did so successfully.

...IF you have near-universal availability of tests.  We're far from it in the US.

A general comment (not directed specifically at you, NickG):

Why do most people here see this as an either/or strategy?  Don't you see that there's a middle course is optimal for both the economy and public health?  Lock things down now before they get worse, then lift restrictions in places where a large outbreak is not current when more testing is available to implement widespread testing and tracing.  That way you minimize the current effects and get back to normal as quickly as possible (where "normal" means both more economic activity and no widespread outbreak).

Determining how/when to lift restrictions is a function of testing availability and current local health conditions.  This should be susceptible to optimization by public health experts.

No one is gonna consent to an open-ended house arrest order. That's the real reason there is so much opposition to a National lockdown. The proposed time frames keep getting longer and more insane and then conclude with "but it could take even longer". Schit, Jacobin was demanding EIGHT MONTHS minimum of National house arrest.

AFAIK, Jacobin isn't in a position of government authority.    The point is to buy time in small increments, like 2 or 3 weeks. 

Nobody likes being stuck indoors, and even then I don't think anyone is proposing a 100% house arrest; even in the locked-down locations in the US, you can still go out for essential functions.  But sometimes the situation is serious enough that it calls for some sacrifices on the part of citizens.  I remember my mother talking about rationing during WW2.  If the American public could put up with that inconvenience for the sake of the war effort, have we really become so selfish that we can't put up with a temporary restriction on movement for the sake of everyone's health?

Agree.
And take into consideration, that during WWII, in places like London and the entire southern portion of the UK (England), they sacrificed their "normal freedoms" for 3 or 4 years, and especially so during the time when the Luftwaffe was extensively bombing the hell out of them (known as The Battle of Britain which lasted about 4 months).

[ProudModerate2]

There are still so many areas of the country where a nationwide lockdown doesn’t make any sense.  My own region has only had one confirmed case.  It was a kid at a nearby college coming back from spring break.   There is still no evidence of community spread here.  This sort of situation can still be effectively combated through testing and tracing like Korea did so successfully.

...IF you have near-universal availability of tests.  We're far from it in the US.

A general comment (not directed specifically at you, NickG):

Why do most people here see this as an either/or strategy?  Don't you see that there's a middle course is optimal for both the economy and public health?  Lock things down now before they get worse, then lift restrictions in places where a large outbreak is not current when more testing is available to implement widespread testing and tracing.  That way you minimize the current effects and get back to normal as quickly as possible (where "normal" means both more economic activity and no widespread outbreak).

Determining how/when to lift restrictions is a function of testing availability and current local health conditions.  This should be susceptible to optimization by public health experts.

No one is gonna consent to an open-ended house arrest order. That's the real reason there is so much opposition to a National lockdown. The proposed time frames keep getting longer and more insane and then conclude with "but it could take even longer". Schit, Jacobin was demanding EIGHT MONTHS minimum of National house arrest.

AFAIK, Jacobin isn't in a position of government authority.    The point is to buy time in small increments, like 2 or 3 weeks. 

Nobody likes being stuck indoors, and even then I don't think anyone is proposing a 100% house arrest; even in the locked-down locations in the US, you can still go out for essential functions.  But sometimes the situation is serious enough that it calls for some sacrifices on the part of citizens.  I remember my mother talking about rationing during WW2.  If the American public could put up with that inconvenience for the sake of the war effort, have we really become so selfish that we can't put up with a temporary restriction on movement for the sake of everyone's health?

All I'm going to say is that a lot of us find the comparison of Coronavirus to World War 2 such an obscene false equivalency that it immediately shuts down any hope of our respective positions reconciling on prevention strategies.

No one is saying CoronaVirus is the same as WWII. Dont be foolish.
We are talking about the sacrifices people make/made to "normal everyday activities", that could be similar in nature.

[ProudModerate2]

To break the massive wall of text here....we are so screwed

https://twitter.com/bad_takes/status/1243356330951204864?s=09

yeah I just saw the whole interview..........Has trump lost his damn mind

He is on here seriously suggesting that people in New York don't need 30,000 ventilators because he claims that some hospitals only have 1 and he is accusing Cuomo of somehow inflating the number of ventilators his state’s public health system needed in this crisis just to make him look bad

This is a Crazy interview that shows trump at his absolute worst
all he has done is provided more ammo to the very people he says he dislikes and make no mistake a lot of future Attack Ads are going to be using clips for from this interview.

I makes him look terrible, reckless, irresponsible and reminds many Americans who maybe rallying around him at the moment why they hate him so much in the first place

I just cant believe my ears.
Is there someone at the White House who can slap him and wake him up?
The doctors and nurses are saying they need ventilators like yesterday, yet alone 2 weeks from now.
OMG, what is wrong with trump?
He is not taking this seriously! People are dying!

[ProudModerate2]

Migrant workers in India sprayed with bleach disinfectant.

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has sparked controversy after migrant workers, returning home during a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, were doused in bleach disinfectant used to sanitize buses.
Source: CNN

Watch video here: https://us.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/03/31/india-migrants-sprayed-coronavirus-orig-jk.cnn

What kind of idiots would do this.
How is spaying down people with a bleach disinfectant used to sanitize buses going to clear these people of a virus?